Training on the School Grounds
by Fomalhaut
Summary: 24 kids taking an extra art class are chosen for this year's Training. Different ages, different classes, but they know each other are forced to fight to death in an abandoned school building. (Got rid of the island design.) NEW UPDATE! Review if you happen to drop in! :)
1. Art class selection

**My brand new story (as the other one is nearly over) - this will bring some interesting twists, as it will be not set on an island, also, the kids are different ages and classes. This is a general introduction, sorry for too many names. Just tell me if a few stuck in your head, also, please, feedback is always appreciated!**

* * *

"Um, Mina?" Tyler nervously pulled his hands out of his pockets, just to put them back again seconds later.

"What?"

"Mina, I was… wondering…"

The girl fiddled with a lock of her thick, curly pale brown hair, not looking happy at all.

"Mina!" the boy finally got himself together "I want to… I… can we go and see a movie or something?"

_Oh, damn. I look like a total idiot._

However, the response from the girl was something he'd never expected.

"Leave me alone, you bully!" she ran down the corridor to join her best friend.

"Ty, Ty…" Tyler heard the voice he last wished to hear "I told you not to mess with that ugly duckling!"

He looked angrily at Harrison and Peter.

"I'm not like you two – not any more! She is pretty! And I… I will… oh, fuck you two!"

Tyler knew he would meet his dream girl again – in the special art class, held every Friday. Too bad his two ex-friends were to be there too.

Also, they were going to tag along for the weekend forest trip, where they were supposed to learn to paint nature.

"What on Earth happened?"

"That bully thought he could ask me out! Just to make fun of me! Like last year, and…"

"Mina, seriously, he's not been around those two for quite a while, maybe he…"

"Tina! He hates me, he wants to bully me… I…"

"Hello there!" an Asian girl walked by and waved at them.

"Sorry, Jem, we don't have time for this…"

"Okay, see you in art class!"

"See you!"

Comforting her best friend, Christina Emerton wondered why Carmina would see bullies everywhere – especially now that the ugly duckling had turned into almost a swan.

"Mina! Tina! What happened?" a red-haired girl walked up to them, almost in a panic.

"Nothing of your business, sorry!" Christina was busy trying to stop Carmina from crying.

"What's to be so upset for?"

"Leave me alone!" muttered Carmina.

"Yes, Paulsy, leave them" the voice of a short, prim-and-proper blonde girl joined in "I bet someone had said her something apart from praise!"

"Janice…" the red-haired girl tried to stop her.

"Mina, I don't know what happened, but you're overreacting, that's for sure."

"Leave us! You need therapy, you sociopath!" shouted Christina, holding the now weeping Carmina.

Janice shrugged and pulled the third girl away.

_Selection beginning – Lewis High School, Art Class_

Class 10th A

**Blackwood, Janice (Age 15)**

**Blaire, Carmina (Age 15)**

**Emerton, Christina (Age 16)**

**Griffin, Tyler (Age 16)**

**Pauls, Jessica (Age 16)**

**Zheng, Jemima (Age 16)**

Class 10th B

**Aarons, Peter (Age 16)**

**Rowley, Harrison (Age 16)**

Jemima sat down at her place in Art Class, setting carefully the papers and pencils on the desk. She knew they were going to do drawing practice before departing for the trip.

Unbeknownst to her, someone was much more looking forward to seeing _her_ than the forest on the trip.

Lobelia Valdez, her originally black hair dyed a shocking dark purple, was busy checking her incredibly wild makeup in the restroom mirror. Applying another layer of red lipstick, she was wondering whether beautiful Jemima would finally notice her. She did not know if Jemima was straight or not – and ever since she started going to art class, she kept on hoping she wasn't.

"Jem, oh, hi!" she finally entered the classroom.

"Hi, Lia!" Jemima greeted her "here, sit down!"

Lobelia happily accepted the seat, and almost casually touched Jemima's arm.

"Andy! You once again spat snot on my paper! Now I have to pull a third one out!"

The two girls burst into laughter as Bradford Thompson gave a small indignant push to his identical twin.

"Sorry…" but Andrew sneezed again.

"I say, shouldn't you just take an Aspirin and go home?" asked Bradford, before reaching for another sheet.

"The forest… achoo!"

"That's exactly what I'm talking about… and Andy…" he touched his brother's forehead "Andy! Go home _now_! You have fever!"

"Let me help you…"

"Thanks, Mandy… achoo!" Andrew smiled weakly at the girl helping him.

"Nobody calls me that… it's _Amanda_" she flushed slightly.

"Mandy for me…" Andrew wiped his nose.

"Come on now."

Amanda failed to notice Bradford's stare.

While Amanda was giving Andrew a hand in packing, a black-haired girl and an African-American boy walked in, hand in hand.

"You know, Ditty… I'm sure we can take some time apart in that forest…"

"Oh come on! It'll be full of dangerous animals!"

"You mean flies, mosquitoes, spiders and squirrels? Oh, my!"

"No, I mean…"

"She's right, Connor…" a ghostly voice interrupted them "many creatures hide in the depths of the woods…"

The pair looked a little spooked at the pale figure dressed in black. Yes, they knew her, but Rachel "the vampire" could still give anyone the chills.

_Selection continues_

Class 11th A

**Archer, Amanda (Age 16)**

**Lacey, Connor (Age 17)**

**Thompson, Andrew (Age 16)**

**Thompson, Bradford (Age 16)**

**Ferris, Rachel (Age 16)**

Class 11th B

**Lloyd, Meredith (Age 17)**

**Valdez, Lobelia (Age 17)**

As Andrew headed down the corridor, he sneezed again.

_Damn, so much for hiding in the woods with Mandy._ They have been dating for two months now, and wanted to try making love in more exotic places than the good old bed.

_Well then, maybe later._

Another sneeze.

"Ooh, medical assistance required?"

"No, thanks, Victor…" Andrew smiled weakly and descended the stairs.

The older boy, speaking with a slight accent, looked after him. Victor Wikström, Swedish Finn transfer student, had recently begun his second semester in an American high school, due to his excellent grades. And by now, he was practicing as a nurse at the local hospital to earn some money, as his grant wasn't enough by far.

"Dumm… dumm…"

_There's another patient._

Lukas Vale, suffering from Asperger syndrome, walked past him humming to himself. This rare form of autism did not impede Luke in having excellent grades, and, mostly, excelling at painting.

A short while after Lukas had settled down, apart from the others as usual, Victor also walked in, beaming as always.

"Hellooo! Trip ahead, can't wait!"

Two boys, who, until then, have been chatting carelessly sitting on a desk, immediately rose.

"Tony! Mickey!" waved Victor.

Antonio Ruggeri, the "gentle giant" and his best friend Miguel Bereda used to be inseparable – and, strangely enough, when Victor joined the class, they almost immediately took him in as the third best friend. Recently, however, the two seemed to avoid him.

Antonio shot Victor a killer look.

"Come along, Mickey, I think I have forgotten my lunch in our classroom…"

"Wait…" Victor tried in vain to talk to them.

The two walked past him and exited the classroom. Victor looked sadly at the lunchbox sticking out of Antonio's backpack.

Soon, however, his attention was diverted by a tall boy drawing a detailed picture of a black and a hispanic girl.

"Very well… hold still…" Elias added a stroke of a shadow to the black girl's face "now… Jan! You moved!"

"Sorry… back now? Is it okay?" the hispanic one moved back.

"Stop crawling over me!" the black girl pulled away.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"

Elias pulled out his eraser.

"It's all right. Denise, it doesn't matter. You can pose for me again… in a wooded setting!" he winked.

"Wow, Elias, it's lovely!" a brown-haired boy leant over the half-finished picture.

"Thanks, Darren!" Elias looked at him "now… be careful!"

But it was too late. In leaning over, the chair Darren was kneeling on toppled and both he and Elias ended up on the floor. Luckily, the drawing of the two girls stayed intact.

Another girl picked it up.

"May I pose for you too one day?"

"Maybe, Cathy… maybe. And you, Darren, why the hell are you always this clumsy?!"

The truth was, Catherine was undoubtedly one of the prettiest girls in art class. Yet, Elias considered her too… _usual_. He preferred to portray more lively, interesting girls.

Denise and Janelle were already discussing if posing in their long dresses in the middle of a forest would make them look like elves or fairies.

_End of selection_

Class 12th A

**Bereda, Miguel (Age 17)**

**Ruggeri, Antonio (Age 18)**

**Wernick, Janelle (Age 17)**

**Wikström, Victor (Age 18)**

Class 12th B

**Hamilton, Catherine (Age 17)**

**Midfield, Denise (Age 17)**

**Nelson, Darren (Age 18)**

**Vale, Lukas (Age 19)**

**Wescott, Elias (Age 18)**

Little did the art class know this was going to be no ordinary artistic trip.

_Final list_

Boys

#1 Peter Aarons

#2 Miguel Bereda

#3 Tyler Griffin

#4 Connor Lacey

#5 Darren Nelson

#6 Harrison Rowley

#7 Antonio Ruggeri

#8 Andrew Thompson

#9 Bradford Thompson

#10 Lukas Vale

#11 Elias Wescott

#12 Victor Wikström

Girls

#1 Amanda Archer

#2 Janice Blackwood

#3 Carmina Blaire

#4 Christina Emerton

#5 Rachel Ferris

#6 Catherine Hamilton

#7 Meredith Lloyd

#8 Denise Midfield

#9 Jessica Pauls

#10 Lobelia Valdez

#11 Janelle Wernick

#12 Jemima Zheng

**Boy #8 Thomspon, Andrew - not participating**


	2. Bus

**Second chapter up, more character insight, the game starts in the next one! Please give me some feedback, I love it!**

* * *

"How lovely..." sighed Elias, looking at the fresh snow covering the schoolyard, with the still perfectly clean tour bus shining blue in the sunlight.

He took out his ever-present sketchbook, to immortalize the moment, the perfect shadows, just before they would all fade away. When other people would usually take out their cameras, flash some pics and run off in the opposite direction to continue clicking insanely, he would just stand there, breathe in the atmosphere, and draw.

January trip. Snow-covered forest. Elias chuckled, imagining Denise and Janelle getting a cold while posing as snow fairies in their long dresses – still, most girls and even boys could kill just to be in one of the amazingly detailed pencil or coal pictures signed E.W. – Elias Wescott. Adding the last few rays of sun, a few of the other art class students walked past him: Meredith and Connor, snuggling as usual (and probably carrying a heated double sleeping-bag), Rachel in full emo make-up and in a long black coat. _The fairies and the ghost_ – Elias just knew he had to ask Denise and Janelle to pose playfully in the snow, with Rachel hiding behind a tree. The "vampire" might need some convincing, but nothing tall, dark blonde-haired Elias could not manage. Just a look from his hazel eyes and a promise that she would really look like a supernatural creature would be more than enough.

As Elias' mood was rising, Victor's plummeted.

"Tony! Mickey!" he motioned towards the vacant seat beside Antonio and Miguel, when the tall Italian covered it with his hand.

"This seat's taken!"

"But... oh, very well..." Victor preferred not to discuss personal matters with Antonio in front of a gradually filling bus.

Soon he noticed a vacant window seat in a row of three, the other two occupied by two girls. He did not know them very well, being two years younger than himself, just that they were best friends. However, he always considered both fairly pretty. The short one with glasses and long, curly chestnut hair was known as Mina, and the other, with her hair dyed a purplish brown, as Tina.

"May I sit here?"

"Um..." muttered Carmina, kinda scared of handsome guys, afraid they were there only to bully her.

"Sure!" Christina let him in.

"You just sat next to a crybaby!" shouted Janice Blackwood, sitting opposite of them with her best friend Jessica Pauls, who just looked down at this comment. Did Janice really need to always be so cruel?

This remark was not something Christina would allow, anyway. She stood up with her face looking as that of a dragon spitting fire.

"Sociopath! Do you feel all mighty and superior now? Do you?! Bullying a girl with self-esteem problems? I... I will _kill_ you one day, I swear! Mark my words!"

"Oh, my... being a bodyguard is a tough job, ain't it?" Janice didn't even look up as she kept on checking her French manicure.

"Stop this constant battle, you two!" Jemima Zheng, her shiny black hair held back in a ponytail, stepped between them "Tina, you know Mina is beautiful now – and you, Janice, occupy yourself with something else – like this magazine I brought!

Thus Jemima sat beside Janice and showed it to her.

Truth was, Janice was neither a bully nor a sociopath. She was just always proper, and found Carmina's constant paranoia such a huge annoyance that she would not just sit and listen to her complaining all the time. Jessica Pauls, or "Paulsy", however, found her attitude very hurtful and embarrassing.

Meanwhile, Victor managed to divert Carmina's attention.

"I don't think that's your name" he said as she saw the girl erase _Carmina Blaire_ on the front page of her notebook and writing something else instead.

"That is me... _me_" she answered, looking kindly at her art name.

The name she made up those sleepless night she cried for being bullied again. The nights when she swore to change her appearance, once her huge braces had at least given her perfect teeth, and she could finally take them off. The strong, pretty girl who would beat up insensitive bastards like Harrison and Peter, with Tyler standing idly by, as they tortured her, knocking her over on the corridor when Tina wasn't around and writing disgusting sentences on her school locker. She, the one she wanted to become, and maybe already budding.

_Wilhelmina Belle-Aire_.

"It's lovely... sounds a little French" Tyler, who put up with Meredith and Connor snogging on the seats beside him just to be able to sit in the row behind Carmina, stood up and leant forward to read the name.

"She is _me_" said Carmina again "and will get revenge on all you bullies."

"Mina, honestly, I..."

"Oh shut up, you too" Christina sat back, fuming silently.

Harrison and Peter, sitting behind Tyler with Darren Nelson by their side, chuckled at their ex-friend getting rejected again.

Lobelia, meanwhile, got a seat beside Amanda and Bradford, and was quite saddened by being fairly far from lovely Jemima. Her companions made her smile nonetheless.

"Never worry if Andy's sick, you'll have a backup copy of your boyfriend, Mandy!"

"Oh, Brad, just stop being silly! And only he can call me Mandy, not you, not anybody else!"

Nevertheless, Amanda seemed quite amused. She was all too aware of the fact that Bradford fancied her too – but she had chosen Andrew of the Thompson twins. Bradford would never make a move; yes, he liked Amanda, but was not in love with her. However, he would always stand by her.

Meanwhile, the vacant seat beside Antonio and Miguel did not fill up.

"That bastard won't sit by us, Mickey... never ever again."

Miguel nodded, looking over at Victor talking to Carmina.

This side of Antonio was, however, fairly new to him. They had known each other since elementary school, and tall, strong Tony would always show to be a truly caring, trustful friend, being called by most "the gentle giant". Even with Victor, when the three started hanging out together. Common interests, similar taste of humour – everything seemed to match. Until a few weeks before. An Italian like Antonio would put family before everything. A broken heart and a girl who became a shadow of herself was not something he would easily forgive.

In the back row, Rachel sat alone, with Lukas humming beside her. She knew the boy wasn't at fault, that he couldn't do anything about his condition – but this constant noise and his empty stares were annoying her. She knew it was no use trying to scare him with horror stories or speaking in the ghostly voice that had became her trademark. The outside world just wouldn't reach the autistic boy.

_Finally_, she thought, when Catherine Hamilton sat beside her. Though not her friend by any means, the stunningly beautiful girl was surely a pleasant companion – she was never scared of Rachel, and they could surely chat about beauty products and make-up.

"Honestly, Rach, am I ugly?" she asked.

"What?!" Rachel couldn't believe her ears.

Cathy was anything but that, with her long, straight shiny dark brown hair and cold blue eyes, not to mention her pretty face.

"He just wouldn't draw me!" she gestured at Elias, getting on the bus last, accompanied by his two favorite models, hispanic Janelle Wernick and black Denise Midfield. His snow fairies.

As the bus started suddenly, Darren, clumsy as usual, instantly spilled his Coke over Harrison and Peter, who immediately stopped mocking Tyler to start yelling at him instead, and within minutes chaos ensued.

Until it suddenly stopped. All the art class students seemed to be fast asleep.


	3. Let it begin

**Sorry if this is short! Please read and review! **

**My dear readers, please check out my profile for simplified Gaia pics of the students and a map of the school. Also, feel free to visit my forum and voice your opinion!**

**As for those following The Training - the final chapter will be up in a week.**

**(Also, side note - I know Victor speaks Finnish. But he's a Finnish Swede.)**

* * *

"_Mitä_...?" Victor brushed his head against the headrest of the bus seat, not willing to open his eyes. He felt too tired and dizzy. Maybe the journey to that forest wasn't over yet; maybe he could get some more sleep...

But a terrified scream soon woke him up completely with a start.

"Aaah! The bullies! It's the bullies! They tied me up! Tina!" Carmina's blue eyes widened with horror behind her square-framed glasses.

"Mina, I'll... what the fuck?!" Christina was just about to embrace her best friend, when she found she couldn't.

Victor stared in shock at the handcuffs around his wrists; he couldn't move from his seat.

"I don't remember that..." he looked over at the two girls beside him; both had a sort of collar on.

"It's the bullies!" Carmina yelled so loud to overpower the confused voices from the rest of the bus "and they're going to kill me this time! It's them! It can only be them!"

"Mina!" Tyler tried to reach out, to make her hear him, but it was no use "oh, Mina, please, no..."

"SILENCE!" a voice from a speaker was heard, and even Carmina's voice went back to a whimper.

A few seconds later a short man climbed the stairs to the bus, followed by two others dressed in black, with guns on their sides.

"What is this...?" many scared students began asking each other.

"Now" the first man, dressed in a striped button-down shirt and plain trousers, took out a megaphone "can everyone hear me?"

"Yeah, we can!" Peter shouted angrily "free us _now_! And where's the wood houses?! All I can see is a fucking _school_ out there!"

The man sighed.

"Please, be silent. I am Jonas Gray, and you will have to go through the Government's secret Training project... inside there."

"Competition?" asked Janice.

"No art then? Aww, man!" Elias let out a puff of air.

Rachel just stared at them through her bright red contact lenses, silent as an eerie ghost, not minding that she was tied up too. She seemed to ignore Lukas muttering incoherent sentences and Catherine shaking like a leaf on her two sides.

"Now you will be released..."

"About time!" Harrison growled "this shitty joke has gone too far..."

"I'm afraid it's no joke..."

Jonas had never wanted to do this. He had never wanted to coordinate one of these "games", as some idiots would call them. But it was his job, he _had_ to do it, otherwise he would never see his family again. He was forced to lie to his wife and two children, that, as a schoolteacher, he would have to guide an extra class on a field trip. Why _him_? Jonas was nothing more than a simple history teacher. But _he_ was the one chosen from the school which used to be his workplace, as the only one to know why it had to be evacuated, and why all the workers were immediately relocated to other institutions. Maybe because he was far too easy to blackmail: _say one word, try to rebel, and who knows what will happen to you or your family? So what do you say? Get there and direct the game!_

"You will now be released, one by one, by number, as I fish out a name randomly from this envelope. One of you every two minutes. And then you'll have to go into the school building, outside of the bus you will be supplied with a bag, and also retrieve your own ones. The new bags each contain a plan of this school, a list of your names, a watch, some bread and water and a..."

Jonas drew a deep sigh and force the tears back.

"...and a weapon."

Cries of disbelief and scared mutters came from the students.

"Once you all have left, the entrance will be sealed shut. Twenty-four enter, only one can leave... kill or be killed."

"Oh, _ma per favore! Mai e poi mai!_" Antonio tried to stand up with a jolt, but the handcuffs pulled him back.

"Yeah, we will never do this!" Miguel added.

"Right" Victor joined in.

"The bullies will kill me! The bullies will kill meee!" Carmina once again screamed louder than everyone else combined.

"You have no choice" Jonas kept his stare on the envelope, to avoid looking in the eyes of the innocent victims – _his_ innocent victims.

"Of course we have!" Connor, ever the strategist, said "we will team up inside there and rush you! We will have weapons, you see..."

Meredith could still hold his hand, despite the handcuffs. Their fingers intertwined at his words.

Jonas looked up.

"See those collars?"

Frightened gasps came, as many noticed the thin metal straps only then.

"We will know where you are... and if you all just sit still, and nobody dies within twelve hours – _any_ twelve consecutive hours – they will all explode. Otherwise, you see... one, only _one_ of you has a chance to go home and see their family again. Also, the winner will be granted certain privileges. As for the others – you all died in a tragic accident. And, occasionally, we will declare a certain spot a _danger zone_, which means anyone there will have their collar explode within thirty minutes. This way you will have to go and eventually run into each other. But if no one is in the danger zone within one hour, it will be safe again. I will deliver announcements every six hours; or, in the case of danger zones, less."

The two men in black rose their guns, and the students went silent. Many girls were crying.

"And the first to go out... ah" Jonas fished one piece of paper out "is boy #8, Andrew Thompson. Where is he?"

Nobody moved.

"Hey... there is only twenty-three of you!"

"Andy... Andy..." Bradford struggled to get the words out and keep the tears back "he... has... the... the flu...? He's home now..."

"Well then, the next one. Boy #9, Bradford Thompson."

Bradford's blood froze. He watched, numb, as one of the men in black walked up to him and undid the handcuffs. Then he was nudged to the door of the bus with the gun.

"Brad!" a sudden scream woke him from his daze.

Amanda looked at him, tears running down her cheeks.

"Mandy!" the gun was pushed harder against his back "no! Mand... _Amanda_! No!"

Ultimately, the man had enough and shoved him down the stairs of the bus. He landed in the snow on all fours.

Bradford soon received his own bag, his coat and a black backpack.

_Mandy..._

But waiting for her was out of the question. _What if..._ That horrible doubt, exactly what those wretched bastards were trying to achieve.

_I will find you, Mandy!_

Bradford did not even look back as he ran up the stairs and entered the school – the battle grounds.

**Boy #8 Thompson, Andrew - not participating**

**23 contestants remaining**


	4. Glasses and braces

**Enjoy, review, check out the school plans in my profile, visit my forum, whatever you'd like!**

* * *

Both of them always wanted to just fit in. To stop being bullied. Neither of them was ugly, stupid or annoying. They even matched in height and style. In another life, Carmina Blaire (Girl #3) and Tyler Griffin (Boy #3) would have made the perfect couple.

But it was their choices that drove them apart forever.

Tyler came to Lewis High School in the middle of the first year, quite unusually. There were rumors that he was kicked out from his previous school for being a problematic boy, but they were soon discredited seeing how shy he was.

In truth, he was forced to change school after atrocious bullying nearly drove him to suicide and turned the once smiley, optimistic boy into an insecure, sullen one. He had to wear gigantic braces and thick-framed glasses, and his usual, plain clothing did not balance it well for the jerks found in every single high school. First it was only words, then a few shoves and punches, then notebooks torn apart, until he once ran home with broken glasses, glass shards around his eye, lips bleeding where his braces cut into them. He cried and vomited each time school was mentioned again – until he was convinced that in Lewis, everything would be better. He changed to contact lenses and night braces. Ready for a fresh start with a clean sheet. Too bad that, when he finally started to open up after about a month or so, he decided to make friends with the worst people possible.

"Girly" commented Harrison Rowley (Boy #6) to his best friend Peter Aarons (Boy #1).

"Maybe he's not that bad. He doesn't speak very much."

The two boys from class B (Tyler was in class A), who joined the art club just out of boredom when they needed more courses, eyed Tyler suspiciously. He did not even notice them, quietly drawing the still life of flowers in a vase that was the day's assignment.

"What if he was kicked out?" whispered Peter "maybe he dealt drugs…"

"Are you an asshole?! That… that _thing_?!"

Nevertheless, they followed him after school and caught up with him in the street.

"Hey you!"

Tyler froze, then realized it was not the old bullies.

"Oh… hi. Harry… and…"

"Pete."

"And don't _Harry_ me. _Harrison_."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Have some spare time?"

"Um… sure."

Truth was, Harrison and Peter weren't exactly the type of guys Tyler would happily bond with, at least not under normal circumstances. But it was _they_ who approached _him_, seemingly meaning no harm. Maybe he _would_ fit in; maybe he would bond. They seemed to be the big-mouthed, popular kind anyway. What harm could come?

A few minutes later, the three of them were already smoking cigarettes in a secluded dead end, Tyler listening, still a little unsure, to the other two talking dirty about girls, fights and sports.

_I'll get accustomed to this_, he thought.

Tyler would sacrifice his morals to fit in. For a while, at least.

It was a few weeks later that he started to feel that maybe hanging with Harrison and Peter, him by then being considered the third member of the gang by the rest of the students, maybe wasn't the best idea.

"Hey, _braids and braces_! Where's your _lesbo bodyguard_?!" shouted Harrison, at which Peter began laughing evilly. Tyler forced a smile.

The girl from Tyler's class turned around, blushing. Her chestnut hair hung in two pigtails that didn't suit her at all, her braces made her mouth constantly hang half-open, not to mention her plain clothing and glasses. As if she was wearing a huge neon sign saying _BULLY ME_.

Tyler never joined whenever Harrison and Peter took fun in shoving Carmina Blaire around, but neither did he take her defense. He preferred to fade into the background, as remorse slowly crept from the depths of his soul. For if somebody, he certainly knew what Mina was going through.

Except that Tyler never had someone ready to protect her, like Carmina. Christina Emerton (Girl #4) was always there to stand up for bullies, who could hardly find a grasp on her. She was also fairly strong for a girl, best friend for Mina since seventh grade, though just by looks she would seem more like a bully than a protector. Probably, though, it was her way of bullying - pretending to do it just to protect Carmina. She took an odd pleasure in humiliating others, but only ones who, in her eyes, deserved it. Pleasure, yes. Protecting Carmina could have simply been shooing bullies off, but oh, no, Christina wouldn't leave it at that. Her savage fury against anyone bullying her friend was feared by most – except obviously that obnoxious Janice Blackwood (Girl #2), who thought herself superior to most. Especially since Elias Wescott (Boy #11) once made her the centerpiece of a drawing, nevermind it was titled _The Tyrant Empress_.

_Mina and Tina_, the inseparable pair.

It was the summer break separating ninth and tenth grade that changed things. Tyler got a hold on himself on a vacation out of town, and decided to sever all ties with Harrison and Peter. Sure, he had some so-called "friends", but the drawbacks were worse. Having to become bit of a bully, or at least to tag along, cough a lot because smoking was "cool", drinking, and being labeled as just another jerk. Just for hanging out with them. He also quit smoking and denying his true self.

Carmina, meanwhile, was given a huge makeover. Her curly chestnut hair now fell loose down her back, her braces had been removed, and she tried to build up some self-esteem. Her glasses bothered her a lot, though, as she was the single person in the whole art club who wore them – everyone else near-sighted had switched to contact lenses.

Poor Tyler thought that a few kind words would erase the past. They wouldn't. Carmina loathed him, Christina always told him to fuck off, and he became the brand new target for Harrison and Peter. He found out the hard way that getting rid of bullies was nothing compared to trying to wash off the mark of "jerk". The feelings he began to develop for beautiful Carmina just made things worse.

* * *

The students were led off the bus one by one. Two minutes after Bradford it was Jessica Pauls' (Girl #9) turn, who wept and had to be held on the arm to be even able to walk. Never bullied, and red-haired and green-eyed, you might think she would face anything. But Jessica would never – she was way too used to fading into the background and being a nobody, which was just fine for her. Unlike her friend Janice, though.

Lukas Vale (Boy #10) had to be forcibly pulled from his seat, as he kept on repeating "art trip, wood houses, forest, where is this?" over and over.

Lobelia Valdez (Girl #10) would keep her stare on Jemima Zheng (Girl #12), who, despite being her friend, showed no sign of noticing her too much.

Elias Wescott tore his arm off the man in black's hand and walked out proudly, his head up. He did not wait for Janelle Wernick (Girl #11), one of his "snow fairies", coming next.

Most students, once inside the school, immediately ran in all possible directions, up or down stairs, hoping to find a quiet spot to hide – or just calm down and try to make reason of the unreasonable situation.

* * *

Tyler and Carmina came right after one another.

So the boy waited near the entrance, hoping the two of them could team up.

First, he thought however, he should ready his weapon. So he sat down, back to the wall of the bar room next to the entrance, and reached in his new backpack.

_Bread… bottles… papers… a watch… a plastic bag…_

Nothing else.

"What the hell?"

_Oh, great. So they're lying too! But… if there's no weapon…_

…_shit._

Tyler held up the plastic bag incredulously.

Unless it was a sick joke, a very, very sick joke… _that_ was his weapon.

_The plastic bag._

He felt tears forming in his eyes.

As he pulled out the contents of the bag one by one, holding on to the vain hope he missed something, he didn't hear the soft footsteps of the girl coming right after him.

Carmina, careful not to make a sound, slid into the porter's office and híd under the desk, for she had noticed Tyler sitting in the corridor.

"Ty?"

"NO!" Tyler backed away from Connor Lacey (Boy #4) "where's Mina?!"

"What…? She… should be inside or…"

"Aaah!" Tyler hastily threw everything back into the bag and ran down the corridor, towards the geography room, where he turned the corner and disappeared.

Connor, holding his machete, realized only then how threatening he must have looked. Shaking his head, he went off the opposite direction, steps silent.

_You and me, Ditty, in the chairman's office._

This he whispered in his girlfriend's ear, without getting noticed. For there must be a chairman's office in every school. He will soon be with her, Meredith Lloyd (Girl #7).

* * *

"Tina!" Carmina looked out the small window in the porter's office.

"Oh, Mina, thank goodness!" Christina opened the door and embraced her weeping friend.

"Tina… Tina… the bullies…"

"They won't hurt you."

"He was waiting for me… to _kill_ me!"

"Shush, Mina, nobody's there… now, come, we must find another place."

Carmina did not trust anybody any more. The school trip had turned into a horror. Tyler was there, undoubtedly just waiting to kill her. She felt stupid for even reaching out for Tina… but she went along nonetheless. She never, ever stood up for herself, only depending on Tina… maybe…

_Maybe…_

Christina helped Carmina to her feet and led her swiftly but silentl down the corridor, then up the stairs to the first floor.

_Library_.

According to the plan of the school, there were three of them – this was the one labeled "large library", but still smaller than the main one, located on the third floor.

Christina readied her weapon – namely, a tire iron – and opened the door.

No movement, no sound.

With bookshelves lining the walls and just a desk in the middle, there was no place anyone could hide.

"Come, it's safe."

Carmina walked inside, and they closed the door.

"Phew" Christina placed her tire iron on the floor and wiped away the remaining tears from Carmina's cheeks.

They sat silent for a while, more than half an hour in fact, the clock ticking inexorably, trying to make sense of this horrible "game".

"You okay?"

"Yes…" sighed Carmina, forcing a slight smile "but the bullies…"

"They won't make it out alive" Christina grasped her tire iron and rose it up "only one can remain."

…_so you will now whack me on the head with that?_

Carmina shivered.

_But no, Tina would never do that._

Christina looked quite menacing, strong, determined, with that constantly angry spark in her eyes.

…_or would she?_

"Let me see what you've got" Christina pulled Carmina's bag to her without even asking.

_Are you trying to take my weapon?_

"What the fuck is this?"

Christina held up a closed metal fan.

_I am a loser, you see it too!_

"Whoa!"

Christina opened the fan – and noticed it had pointy spikes with sharp blades at each section, making it both a stabbing and a slashing weapon.

"This sucks, however. Looks scary, but sucks" she handed it to Carmina "but be careful with it."

_You think my weapon sucks, but I should hold it? Do i suck too?_

"Typical" sighed Christina, and stood up.

_WHAT is typical?_

Carmina, holding her fan, stood up too.

"Yes, very typical" sighed the taller girl, facing away from her friend "no luck, eh? You get something totally impractical, which cannot be used very well and…"

_I suck?! I am always a loser?!_

It was the work of a moment.

_BULLY!_

She half-turned.

Then, in a split second, the razor-shard blades of the fan slashed across Christina's throat, blood staining her shirt and spraying all over Carmina's face.

"Wha… agh…" Christina dropped the tire iron and rose a hand to her throat; the wound was not immediately fatal.

"Bully…" hissed Carmina.

Red. Seeing red literally, as blood stained her glasses, Carmina felt she was turning into somebody else.

_Only one can remain._

Bullies would _die_. Christina would just talk and talk, and talk even instead of her, and in the end…? One of them would have to die.

_Let it be over quick!_

Carmina wiped the blood from her glasses and picked up the tire iron too.

Christina, eyes wide with horror and pain, backed away, then reached for the latch on the door, managing to open it just before the first blow came down on the back of her head, not too strong of course, but making her dizzy. With the loss of blood from her throat wound, she was losing consciousness fast.

Carmina would not leave it at that, though.

"Bully…"

Christina staggered to the window facing the inner schoolyard opening from the corridor, when Carmina delivered the second, final blow to the back of her head.

All the students inside the building rose their heads at the sharp sound of shattering glass, as Christina fell against the window, the last thing she saw being the wall going down and the yard.

* * *

"Uh?" Rachel Ferris (Girl #5), being sure that no one would hide there and that a vampire doesn't feel the cold anyway, heard the sound from some bushes in the yard, where she hid, sitting quietly in the snow, not even checking her weapon.

Nothing could have prepared her for the sight.

A girl's bloody upper body hung out of a shattered window, the red liquid flowing down the wall in several trails, ultimately tainting the fresh snow.

"Blood… blood… blood…!"

Somewhere up on the first floor, _Wilhelmina Belle-Aire _scored the first kill in this Training.

**Girl #4 Emerton, Christina – eliminated**

**22 contestants remaining**


	5. Standing out

**Now, the school's layout becomes really important. Please check it out.**

**Also, now I really need your feedback - and suggestions. Not that I don't know what's coming up next, but I'm unsure about a few little details. Please visit my forum and feel free to ask me any questions. I mostly appreciate any advice or comments about the characters.**

**(The scene with Meredith, Connor and Rachel links back to the first episode.)**

* * *

The crash made Elias Wescott (Boy #11) open his eyes. No, of course he wasn't sleeping, as he sat in a relatively inconspicuous room, labeled "Language Lab #3" on the school plans he found in his backpack. He was on the second floor of the school – the entire building was different from their own, which had a block building for classrooms, a separate gym and a large backyard. This one had a rectangular shape, its corridors all having windows facing the medium-sized inner yard with a few bushes and little else, while all the classroom windows faced outside. Had Elias been on the other side of the building, he could have seen that damned bus from the window.

He just sighed, and tried to resume his thoughts again. He wasn't particularly concerned by the crash or prompted to investigate its cause; better to stay safe – and try to _draw_, damn it! But draw _what_? Chairs, desks, a blackboard, a few books on a shelf? This wasn't Elias' style. But drawing somehow always calmed him, that's why he was now sitting on a chair, his sketchbook and a pencil in his lap. No models around. Nobody. And for no reason he would walk out in such a situation to ask somebody to pose for him – not now. Especially with his "weapon" – a Swiss knife. It would take him hours even to stab somebody with that…

He shook his head, and looked at the sketchbook again. Maybe he should have waited for Janelle Wernick (Girl #11) – but not for Denise Midfield (Girl #8), as she was going to be the last to enter the school. But no, Janelle would be in a hysteria, and would never pose for him.  
All Elias wanted was to draw somebody – then and there. But there was no one in sight. He didn't want to die with an empty sketchbook, with only half-finished pictures of Denise and Janelle and a quick drawing of the bus waiting, some people walking towards it. He wanted something at least like _The Tyrant Empress_, a drawing of a few weeks before. It was also getting dark, at around 4 PM on a January day. And Elias, of course, needed light…

_Die_. Yes, there were people out there who could kill him. That Catherine Hamilton (Girl #6) probably would, hurt as she was that he always declined to draw her. But the most he thought he could ever bring out of that girl was something like _Dull Princess_ or _Random Pretty Girl_. Nope, nothing special. Even if she should pose in glamorous dresses, and even though she was pretty – definitely not material for Elias.

Unlike the protagonist of _The Tyrant Empress_, most likely still hanging in its frame in their old school, up on the wall of the art room.

* * *

Janice Blackwood (Girl #2), whose face everybody knew from _The Tyrant Empress_, found herself in the Geography Room of the ground floor, not willing to move – not until she had a plan ready. For no way she was going to die, not then and there.

However, the long, purple silk scarf she found in her backpack was not a great weapon by any means – was she going to creep up on some people and strangle them? Not that she would have had any problem with that…

Janice was presently the youngest contestant of the Training, having turned fifteen only last August. But, were there any bets accepted, she would have been high on the possible winners' list.

She wasn't the best student in class. She had good grades, but nothing exceptional. Nor was she particularly pretty – light blond hair cut in a bob, green eyes, average facial features, not even freckles or a beauty mark. Nor was she a bitch queen – a virgin, she didn't care much for boys or romance. Yet, there was something in her that could make nearly anyone crossing her path feel like a failure. Bullies would torment others with insults or punches – Janice would just look at them or say a few words, and BAM! Their self-esteem would shrink.

"Excuse me, Miss Blackwood?" Elias once stopped her as they were about to exit art class "would you give me a moment?"

"Of course" she smiled.

Catherine Hamilton stared at them walking down the corridor, obviously deeply hurt.

"So… what is this about?" she inquired, as Elias made her sit on an armchair in one of the sitting rooms of their school.

"Do you happen to have a long skirt? Maybe a dress?"

Janice knew where this was going. She never asked to pose for him – but obviously, _superior_ as she was, Elias saw instantly what an amazing model she would make.

"As a matter of fact, I do" she said with that hint of superiority in her voice "but why? Is this not good enough?"

For she was wearing her trademark, well, _proper_ clothes: white button-down shirt, perfectly creased blue trousers, blue loafers, and a ribbon of similar color around her collar, tied amazingly symmetrically.

Elias eyed her smiling.

"Not exactly… my _empress_."

And that was how Janice brought a bulging bag with her to the next art class, then changed into a long golden gown, put on her mother's prom queen crown (in a few years she was surely to win one of her own), and sat in the armchair sporting her signature smirk as Elias drew her. Her "nobody" friend, Jessica Pauls (Girl #9), was told not to wait for her. And for no reason should she "interfere". Janice. It was _her_, not anybody else. The very image of perfection – cower, common mortals!

_The Tyrant Empress._

Janice, her legs dangling in the air (she was even fairly short), sat on a desk checking the student list.

_Carmina_.

She felt an urge to cross out the name immediately, but well… _she_ would kill that crybaby soon anyway. If she didn't kill herself earlier, that is. Janice knew Carmina wasn't ugly or stupid, but her constant paranoia and Christina always tailing her reminded her of a nursery or a lesbian relationship based on domination. She never actually bullied Carmina – just said her opinion in that usual, soft voice, without even looking at the person in question.

"_You are overreacting."_

"_Typical."_

"_Stop being a crybaby."_

"_Bodyguard and weakling… how boring."_

"_Asocial freak."_

This last one was almost casually dropped as she walked past Rachel Ferris (Girl #5) while she was busy adjusting her fake fangs.

"_Retard."_

Lukas Vale (Boy #10) just kept going, no words reaching him.

On the bus, though, she called out loud to Victor Wikström (Boy #12) because she secretly hoped he would stand up and take the empty seat beside _her_ instead. A romance with that tall, handsome Swedish Finn would certainly get her lots of attention. She barely knew him, but snogging him in front of the whole school? Now _that_ would be something.

In the end, Janice took her scarf and, of course, _proper_ black briefcase, put on her backpack and silently exited the geography room. The previous crash did not alarm her much; s_he_ wasn't threatened, so she shouldn't be concerned. The door to the yard, covered in snow, was nearby.

* * *

The _asocial freak_ was right there, out in the open, though Janice did not yet notice her.

"Blood…" Rachel walked towards the blood flowing down the wall slightly staggering.

She hesitated before touching it, but in the end she just stared at her palm covered in the red liquid, before dipping both her hands in it.

A vampire would have licked it off. Rachel, instead, just stared, her spectral red eyes wide with a mixture of shock and wanting. Her sharp fangs showed as she grinned.

Another person Janice misjudged, Rachel was not asocial at all. In fact, all one had to do was sit next to her and you could chat with her about nearly anything. True, her fascination with vampirism and dark tales did more than just border on the insane, and she could easily spook anyone if she wanted to, but she was by no means evil or emotionally disturbed. She didn't even fully believe herself a vampire, as much as she did to look like one. It all started as a mere interest in emo trends, then turned into a way of life she liked, and also as a means to stand out. Rachel surely did not blend in anywhere – but just some time with her and a sincere wish to look beyond appearances could make her into an average girl. It might have been hard to look beyond red eyes, sharp fangs, cadaveric make-up and rigorously black clothing, though. She even dyed her natural light brown hair to jet black, tied in a single braid falling on her back.

"Many creatures hide in the depths of the woods…"

Connor Lacey (Boy #4) and Meredith Lloyd (Girl #7) froze for a second, then chuckled.

"Like what, Rach?" the first moment of awkwardness in the art room passed immediately, as Connor and Meredith turned to Rachel.

"Seriously, you give me the chills!" Meredith gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Of course _I_ will sense when they are nearby!" Rachel smiled, her fangs showing again "and will warn you, and maybe protect you!"

This lifestyle was also her way of art – dark atmosphere in drawings and a slightly spectral voice hid a completely different person. Not that the elaborate façade was all fake – just a reminder that looks can be deceiving. Rachel also came from a perfectly normal family and did not fight constantly with her parents about her looks. They led to some friction with more conservative teachers, but constantly studying well and handing in tests filled out almost without mistakes soon pushed any animosity aside.

"NO!"

This was something Jonas Gray did not warn them about – that electricity was not switched off, or that they could not control it. Perhaps another "surprise"?

Rachel fell backwards in the snow as the bright lights turning on in all the rooms and the yard at the same time literally blinded her, as if she was stabbed in the eye.

"Blood! No!" she washed her hands off in the snow, as she knelt not far from where Christina's blood was still flowing down the wall.

She was not a vampire. Maybe resistant to cold, as the snow didn't particularly bother her, but licking blood and all? No way.  
She had to get a hold on herself. This was _real_!

Carmina might have killed, but Rachel, who almost took it as some school play, saw and touched the true horrors first-hand. Try as she might, she couldn't look away from the body, from the blood, from the horrific sight, which sunk in only then.

_I need my weapon._

Rachel rushed to where she had left her backpack, and quickly reached in it.

"W-what?"

Finding a wooden stake would have been very ironic, but the _brick_ she held incredulously was even worse. Useless as anything could be, how was she supposed to walk up to someone and bludgeon them to death? Strange as it may seem, the thought of more blood on her hands made Rachel sick and dizzy.

She needed to get far from there. As far as possible…

"No."

Suddenly she calmed down, as the taller bushes hid the blood from her. She sat down in the snow again.

A useless weapon. A horrific sight. Bright lights. A deserted schoolyard.

_I must stay here_.

Rachel drew in a deep breath.

_Yes._

No one would find her there, now would they? It was cold, temperatures were dropping as night approached. Rachel pulled out her – of course – black coat, and wrapped it around her, curling up behind the bushes and shrubs in the southeast corner of the yard, as far as possible from the bloody wall. Sure as hell she wasn't going to sleep, but she needed such a place, such an unlikely spot for anyone else to come to, to spend, if not the entire night, then some time in peace and quiet, to try and survive. Oh, if she only could be a real vampire! Invincible, not feeling the cold…

A few snowflakes landed on her head, and she pulled the hood of the coat up.

This was going to be a long night.

Not only for her – for everybody. Also the last for some of them.


	6. Burned bridges

**Character development, but one mystery is unveiled and an odd character is further explored! Please check out the school plans! The death toll will rise from the next one, though, I promise.**_  
_

**Enjoy and don't forget to review and visit my forum!**

**Also, I will NOT add song lyrics as a routine. Just this time, as they really fit.**

* * *

_/It doesn't take much to learn_

_When the bridges that you burn_

_Leave you stranded feeling alone_

_It doesn't take much to cry_

_When you're living in a lie_

_And deceiving that someone who cares...!/_

_(Westlife: Don't say it's too late)_

* * *

_Perfect… I know how to use these…_

…_what am I thinking?! _

Victor Wikström (Boy #12) sighed deeply as he put the six syringes back into the cloth envelope he found them in. Yes, as a nurse, he knew how to use them, but when he practiced at the hospital he usually gave flu injections to little children or similar. And now he was supposed to use syringes filled with a deadly dose of potassium chloride to off his classmates! As if it was that easy, jump on somebody and inject them with the poison, then _watch_ them as they died of cardiac arrest…

Victor shook his head again, then pulled his knees up as he sat against the wall of the biology room on the second floor, unbeknownst to him, just a few rooms away from where Elias Wescott (Boy #11) was wondering about whom he should draw.

He hated the lights being turned on – but knew all too well that, despite the light switch not being glued down or anything (he could have easily turned them off in the room), clicking it would give his position away. However, electricity must have been on most of the time, for the fish in the large fish tank on the north side of the room, right next to a window, seemed to be doing well. Victor slowly stood up and walked up to it, looking at the bright-coloured guppies and other fish swimming about.

A memory flashed in his mind.

"_Ti piacciono i pesci, Victor_?" she asked as they passed an aquarium shop.

He understood a little Italian, but answered in English.

"Yes, I like them, Lomi. I have an aquarium at home."

_Lomi._

Victor stood up, walked up to the fish tank and found the small box of fish food right beside it.

"Hungry, eh? I guess nobody has been feeding you in some days…"

The fish swam fast to get to the flakes of food first.

Victor tried as hard as he could to push the memory, no, the _memories_ away, to clear them from his mind, but he just couldn't.

* * *

It all happened in a few weeks, from mid-November to December. Victor used to be best friends with Antonio Ruggeri (Boy #7) and Miguel Bereda (Boy #2), then his horrible lie drove them apart forever. But he lied only to protect himself, he didn't want to suffer… but ended up hurting Antonio, himself and even…

_Even her._

When you are a teenager, you usually think people over 20 – even if they just passed that magical anniversary days before – are automatically big, strong adults who would never find whatever a teenager likes interesting in the least.

Yet, there _she_ was.

"Victor, my cousin Lomi is going to spend six weeks at the University here" announced Antonio one day in early November "and staying at our house, we have a guest room."

"Lomi?" Victor couldn't make out what kind of a name that was, maybe something odd and Italian "when?"

"In a few days."

_University_, thought Victor_, must be some adult who would stay buried in his textbooks all day._

"Hi, you must be Victor! I'm Lomi!"

Victor stood stunned as a fairly short girl with thick raven locks and chocolate brown eyes smiled at him brightly.

"Yes… I'm Victor Wikström…"

"Filomena Ruggeri. But _Fil_ or _Mena_ are so stupid, so it's Lomi!"

She was twenty-two, but looked much less. Also, the way she acted… Victor's illusions about people over twenty being complete adults crumbled. Lomi would enjoy just the things they would – of course, she did study too, but in her spare time, she was an amazing, smiley girl.

The girl he had always dreamed of.

A few days after her arrival, he already volunteered to accompany her around the city when Antonio was busy, and soon they began to meet almost every day, even when her cousin had nothing to do.

Just three days passed before they took each other's hands, and merely a week more before their first kiss. Looking into Lomi's eyes and holding her tight, Victor felt like the happiest person on Earth. Neither of them wanted to think about the fact that Lomi would have to return to Italy, to Florence, and Victor probably wasn't going to stay in America either. But Italy is closer to Finland than the United States, right?

"So, which city do you come from?"

"I live in Ǻbo – or Turku, in its Finnish name. Beautiful city."

"I think I'd find Finland too cold."

"Then I'll warm you up" Victor embraced and kissed her.

It was three weeks later that they were walking hand in hand on the dark streets after an evening out at the movies. It was getting cold.

"I think I'll catch a taxi" said Lomi "it's so late, Anto is waiting for me..."

Victor nervously shifted from one foot to another. Perhaps it was too early for that. Lomi would probably slap him and run to get her taxi. But still… it was a Friday, and neither of them had classes the next day.

"Um, Lomi?" he asked "my place isn't far from here, can't we…"

_Oh damn._

He had just asked a girl to spend the night with him in his tiny, single-room rented student-friendly place.

"Sorry! I… I didn't mean…"

Lomi's eyes widened, then she looked down, kicking a large, fallen leaf.

"_Si_" she whispered "_andiamo._ Let's go."

They both knew what this meant.

What Victor did not know was that it was Lomi's first time. Not the first for him, though.

This did not matter. He found himself deeply in love with her, and the way she always looked at him told him she felt the same way too. They spent the night together three more times – then it was time for her to leave.

Victor told himself their story had to end, even as Lomi was calculating plane ticket prices between Turku and Florence. They exchanged phone numbers, e-mail and postal addresses, promised to write to each other. Lomi really hoped this would last. Victor hoped so too – but found it too hard to break away from her like that. To find happiness and let it slip away. He tried to shield his heart, to protect himself – he did not want to feel heartache. And found the most cowardly way to do it.

_Better to forget it. Maybe if we see each other again in a few years' time… but not now. I am so young… I have so much to do… I…_

_I love you, Lomi. But I need to let this go._

He just couldn't bring himself to tell her, to look her in the eyes.

"Make her happy, Victor" Antonio told him several times.

_What is this, a duty?!_

_I need to let this go. Let this go… for now. _

"Where is he?" Lomi stood nervously at the airport, it was almost time to hand in her ticket. Her heavy luggage was already being loaded on the plane.

Antonio looked around, but could not see Victor anywhere. He tried to call, but he found his friend's phone turned off.

Lomi boarded the plane with tears in her eyes. She called Victor at a reasonable time even when she was back to Italy, but he never answered. Not a reply came to her e-mails either.

_I don't want you to suffer, Lomi. Just believe I'm some bastard who used you._

But there was no way to erase the starlit night they cuddled in bed, whispering words as old as time in their native languages.

"_Ti amo, Victor_."

"_Minä rakastan sinua, Lomi._"

Victor sighed again, looking at the fish. If burning the bridges with Lomi – and thus, with Antonio and Miguel (who witnessed the whole thing as well) too – wasn't enough, what he did afterwards in order to forget and move on, pretending everything was all right, was even worse, and definitely made Antonio his enemy.

After all, his handsome looks and cheerful personality could get him any girl.

_I'm sure Lomi could find herself some Italian guy in no time._

Ignoring the heartache, he wished her the best. He did not know how she hugged her pillow at night, her love for him still strong. He did not know how she could think of no other guy, how she still remembered his promises. He did not know how many times she asked Antonio why didn't Victor answer her e-mails or calls. When Antonio himself came to ask him, he said:

"But it's over."

He knew most of all it wasn't.

Yet, trying to forget and to reassure himself, at the New Year's Eve party he drank a bit too much and soon found himself on the backseat of a car, with Annie, the school bitch, straddling him.

He pulled her to him, smiling. Gripping her oversized breasts and taking off her pink underwear, his mind wandered back to Lomi… she was so much more _natural_… and not just that. Annie was just a body to him, probably just as he was to her. But Lomi had a _soul_. And he _loved her._

"Oh, Lomi…" Annie's eyes widened at the words.

"_Figlio di puttana!_" Antonio, who stayed sober and was just about to leave with Miguel and a couple of other friends, stared at him in disgust, as he banged on the car doors, standing outside in the cold stark naked. Annie had thrown him out.

"It's not what it looks like!"

"Your performance _sucked_!" Annie finally had some mercy, threw his clothes after him, and almost immediately drove away.

* * *

But he still saw _her_ in his dreams every single night.

_If I win…_

_I'll have to kill…_

_If I survive…_

He _had_ to survive. He had a goal now. Spend all his money on a plane ticket to Florence.

_Minä rakastan sinua, Lomi._

* * *

Jonas Gray wiped the sweat from his forehead, then drank his glass of water with big gulps. Apparently, there had already been one kill – he could scarcely believe it, and deep inside, he was shaking like a leaf.

"Apparently one of the best weapons is out" one of the men in black opened the backpack left behind, as only 23 students took part in the contest instead of the 24 they originally planned for "and we put only four firearms in, to even the odds."

"Right" another man answered "but the best one is in. _The sniper rifle_."

Jonas looked at them perplexed.

* * *

If Victor burned the bridges himself, Lukas Vale (Boy #10) was born with bridges long gone.

Asperger's syndrome – generally, people suffering from it could still lead normal lives and learn to socialize too, but not him. His case was particularly severe, bordering on real autism. He did not care about others. More likely, he was afraid of them, as they always gave him weird looks or generally considered him a loon. Humming loudly and repeating sentences over and over after he had heard them was usual for him – and he needed a general routine, too. That's why before the class trip his parents assured him that they were going to a forest with wood houses, showing him photographs of the supposed youth camp, and that everything was going to be fine and all right.

Disoriented, scared, with every little sound roaring like thunder in his head, the lights suddenly turning on making him shriek, Lukas stumbled into a classroom on the third floor (on the school plans it was labeled _Classroom #9_). He opened his second backpack – he still didn't fully understand why he had to take one, after all, he had food and school supplies, right?

"War… movies… bang…" he remembered seeing that thing often on television. He pulled the Winchester Model 70 sniper rifle out of the backpack, and set it carefully on a desk. Frankly, he did not know what to do with it.

"Out… of… place…" he adjusted it, so it lay perfectly horizontal, parallel with the side of the desk.

Then it was time for the boxes of bullets. They were long, with a cylindrical base. Lukas took the three boxes, and sat down at the teacher's desk.

Agonizingly slowly, his eyes focused, he took out the bullets one-by-one, and aligned them in a long, perfect row, making them stand in balance on their narrow, flat end.

Mechanical, orderly motions. When little, he used to align his LEGO blocks or stuffed animals like that. Now it was time for bullets.

Next came the instruction manual.

"Loading… cartridges… bullets… fire…" he repeated mechanically.

Then his eyes widened.

"Shoot… kill…"

He heard the shots he had heard so often on TV. Autism only heightened his senses. It was terrible, awful… he jumped up and stared at the bullets in rows. Then at the rifle lying farther away. Then at all this. He was in an unknown school, an unknown classroom, nobody he knew was around, bright lights came from all the lamps, it was cold… and then… _bang! Bang! BANG!_

With a sweep of his hand, the bullets set off a chain reaction and fell like dominos, ultimately scattering on the floor.

_Clank! Clank! CLANK!_

Lukas covered his ears, letting out small yelps, the _order_ around him falling to pieces.

The rifle.

He ran up to it, then just stared at the seemingly innocent object with tears brimming in his eyes, feeling dizzy and confused.

It took him an eternity to touch it, he was afraid of the _unknown_ object, he had seen it, but never actually used one… at least those bullets, he could organize. But not this… it was so… _messy…_

He held it staring at it.

"The Winchester Model 70 is a bolt-action sniper rifle…" he repeated the words he had read in the manual not so long ago "bullets explode…"

_Explode… bang! Bang! BANG!_

Lukas walked a few steps, then accidentally kicked one of the bullets lying on the floor.

_Clank! Clank! CLANK!_

It was so loud, so foreign, so confusing.

"Wood houses! Forest trip!" he shouted.

The gun he held… it was disorienting. It was going to be loud… and unknown to him, dangerous, unclear…

Lukas did not make any decision. He just wanted to be free, to go back to his room, or to see the end of this nightmare filled of the unknown, the broken routine. He wanted to see the wood houses…

In a sudden movement that frightened even him, he tossed the rifle at the window.

_Crash! Crash! CRASH!_

As Lukas crouched in a corner screaming and covering his ears, the best weapon of the game fell in the snow beside the bus.

Thrown out.


	7. Falling

**I think this story is much better than my old one... I wish more people would tell me their opinion.**

**Anyway, enjoy! The death toll rises!**

* * *

Bradford Thompson (Boy #9) rose his head at the screams, and, uncaring of any possible dangers, rushed out of the room labeled _Classroom #11_ on the third floor, to check out what was happening.

When the "game" began, he immediately ran up the stairs, until he reached the top floor of the school, to study the school plans in peace and quiet, and formulate a plan. Not a plan to kill off his classmates, but one to find Amanda Archer (Girl #1), or "Mandy". For Bradford would never have the courage to look into his brother Andrew's eyes if he didn't at least make an attempt to protect his beautiful girlfriend.  
Yes, like that. Bradford somehow was sure he was going to walk home, leading Amanda to Andrew, and that they would live happily ever after – it didn't really occur to him yet that this was a killing game, a merciless struggle for mere survival.

Just as he turned the corner, though, he ran into someone running in the opposite direction, and they both fell.

"Don't kill me! I'll die anyway! No! Please!" Darren Nelson (Boy #5) crouched on the floor, not even looking at who was sitting opposite of him.

Bradford slowly stood up, his taser in hand.

"No!" Darren still covered his head, without checking the other boy.

"Calm down" Bradford said extremely slowly, putting the taser back in his belt, but keeping his hand on it nonetheless.

"No!" the brown-haired boy refused to look at him.

Bradford leant down, hesitating, and touched his shoulder.

"Aaah!" Darren startled, and fell flat on his back "you're going to kill me!"

"Nobody's going to kill you!" the blonde boy still formulated the words very slowly.

"You are… that's a gun… you're gonna shoot me…" Darren sat up and finally looked at his opponent.

"Not with this _taser_" sighed Bradford.

"Taser…?" Darren glanced around confused. He didn't seem capable of thinking coherently.

"Calm down" Bradford kept his hand on the taser.

_Maybe he's got a gun and is just waiting to pull it on me?_

Bradford bitterly realized that he was already expecting the worst.

They weren't especially close with Darren, but got along fairly well. Bradford never bullied him for his clumsiness, but could not help but laugh at him a couple of times. Like when the teacher asked him to deliver a bucket of modelling clay to class, and he obviously tripped on the corridor and walked inside covered in the grey substance. He had also heard tales of him setting fire to the test papers and burning the teacher's desk with sulfuric acid – which he found hard to believe, until he saw the state of the desk in question.

"I'm going to smash my own head!" Darren's terrified voice brought Bradford back to present.

"Why?" if someone wanted to commit suicide, that didn't seem the most obvious option.

"Look!" Darren, still sitting on the floor, reached in his backpack and pulled out a spiked _mace_. Like one of those in medieval films.

"Whoa! Hold it!" Bradford stepped back and tightened his grip on the taser.

"I'm gonna die!" Darren seemed on the verge of tears.

Ever since that day in chemistry class, Darren had been haunted by his clumsiness. Yes, he always knew he wasn't very careful and almost always let his attention wander, constantly dropped things, seemed to trip over every pebble, lost balance and fell off his bike at the most inopportune moments and managed to cut himself repeatedly with the can opener, but all this wasn't anything he could not live with. He got accustomed to being laughed at, and quickly learned to laugh at himself – laugh _with_ the others.  
Until that fateful day…

* * *

Darren was quite good at chemistry – obviously, he always declined to be the one to light the match or hold the test-tube during experiments.

Then one day the teacher, Mr Gardner, prepared the equipment for that day's experiments on the desk.

"Today we're going to _see_ most of which we learned about in the past months. So there'll be quite a lot of different experiments."

There was a Bunsen-burner, a bowl of water, test-tubes full of various liquids and so on.

"Oh, Darren!"

"Yes?" he prayed to God Mr Gardner woul not ask him to switch the Bunsen-burner on.

"Here's the key to my office. Please bring in the test papers, they're right on my desk – I'll start preparing for the first experiment."

"Okay" Darren took the key and walked out.

He managed to get to the office, take the papers, close the door and get back to class without tripping or dropping anything. This moment of glory wasn't going to last, however – it took only a split second for the disaster to happen. For Mr Gardner had already lit the Bunsen-burner.

"I'm back."

"Very well, Darren… now…"

Darren held the test papers in one hand, and looked at the class smiling.

"What are you doing?!"

"AAAH!"

Mr Gardner jumped back as Darren, his attention once again elsewhere, held the test papers a bit too close to the flame…

It took only a split second for the flames to engulf them.

The teacher went white as Darren, scared as hell, dropped the burning stack on the desk, then… he made it even worse.

"I'll extinguish them! Just a moment!" thus the boy picked up the test-tube nearest to him, full of transparent liquid…

H2SO4. Sulfuric acid.

Darren would never forget what he got from Mr Gardner, the chairman and his parents that day. Not to mention him becoming the perfect target for all bullies, even the ones that were not present. Also, the certainty he would fail his favourite subject.

But worst of all, the humiliation.

* * *

He was sure that whatever weapon he was given, he would kill himself with it in a matter of hours, if not minutes. At least the mace wasn't a firearm, but that didn't make it any less dangerous – for someone like him, at least.

"Wait… let's see who that was!" Bradford, his hand still on the taser, pointed towards the corner, from over which Lukas's screams came.

"Are you crazy?! We're gonna die!"

Bradford rolled his eyes.

"Just…"

"It's Luke."

"How do you know?!"

"He's my classmate."  
To be honest, Lukas' odd behavior kinda spooked Darren.

Bradford walked to the window and looked out.

"Oh dear…"

"What's there?"

"Look…"

It was like a horror scene from the videogames with which Bradford liked to play… and it seemed so surreal: a girl's bloody upper body hanging out the window a few floors below them, on the wall to their left. Blood flowing down the wall.

The two boys just stared for a few seconds, in silence, then they turned their attention to the schoolyard. The two figures in the snow appeared to be just as small as LEGOs – however, what they were doing was no game by any means.

* * *

"Rach?" Janice Blackwood (Girl #2), wearing her baby blue coat lined with white fur, called out to the Rachel Ferris (Girl #5), having spotted her sitting behind a bush – perfectly visible from a corridor window.

"Uh?" the "vampire" looked up "oh."

Janice approached cautiously.

"Aren't you cold? I'm freezing."

Rachel eyed her with suspicion. She did not forget being called an _asocial freak_, and well… Janice generally acting all high and mighty with pretty much everyone. Also, their art and personality could not differ more even if they wanted it to. The teacher always said Rachel's dark atmospheres and expressive, emotional pictures were sure signs of talent and never praised Janice's pictures in front of everyone. However, the Blackwood girl always sat at her desk like some sort of Miss Perfection, with her drawings having perfectly straight lines and clean angles, no colours going over edges or anything out of the ordinary. It didn't take a medium to feel an aura of snobbish superiority constantly emanating from her, especially after seeing how her "friend" (more likely servant) Jessica Pauls (Girl #9) crouched and almost didn't dare saying anything other than praise to her.

_Loon_, thought Janice, obviously unfazed by Rachel's spectral red eyes and her fangs.

"No… I'm not cold."

"Oh, yes, I forgot… vampires are never cold."  
"It's not that!" Rachel just wanted Janice to leave her be "I have this coat on."

She didn't want to attack Janice or anything – on the other hand, she wasn't sure of the other girl's intent, but the short, blonde one killing her? Unless she had a firearm… in that case, why didn't she pull it out yet?

"Tina is dead" said Rachel, holding on to the vain hope this will frighten Janice or at least make her leave "she's there…"

"I know… I have seen her from inside… horrible, just horrible…"

Janice had noticed the bloody body before she walked out to the yard – she wasn't shocked, more likely… surprised. Killing sounded easy enough for her, doing it… not so much. But she wasn't going to die, and Christina's demise definitely meant there were people playing. Janice would never lose at such a game.

The two girls stayed silent for a short while.

"Go" said Rachel suddenly.

"Why should I?"

"It's cold."

"I have a coat on, and you're outside too. Maybe we should both go inside?"

Rachel sighed, then left the small circle of bushes to enter the larger open area.

_Hmm… a little taller than me… but so thin…_ pondered Janice.

True, Rachel was very skinny. This, coupled with her black clothes and vampiric accessories was what made her stand out definitely.

Janice followed her, taking a quick look at the bag Rachel had left under the bushes.

_Too bad…_

Janice soon arrived beside Rachel; the other girl kept an eye on her, not letting her out of her sight for a second.

"Poor Tina…" said Janice "such a horrible end… I can't even bear to look…"

"True" Rachel turned away from her to look up at the body.

That was all it took.

Just like a magician, Janice pulled the silk scarf out of her sleeve; a second later it was already around Rachel's neck.

_Fuck, I'm too weak for this!_

Rachel snarled and rattled like an injured dog.

_Bitch! Why did I turn away?!_

The battle was still even.

Rachel rose her hands to her neck, when suddenly Janice jumped and shoved her down in the snow, kneeling on her back, not letting the scarf go for a single second. Pulling harder and harder.

Rachel began to see slightly red, but managed to raise her head and turn to the side.

"Aah!" Janice's grip loosened for a second as Rachel's fangs tore at the sleeve of her white shirt, popping out of the arm of the coat.

But, before the other girl could do anything more, the scarf tightened around her neck again.

_Freak! Loon! Idiot! Asocial fool! You will pay!_

Janice pressed one knee hard to Rachel's back, propped herself up on her other foot and pulled even harder.

_Die! Die, already!_

She kicked the nape of Rachel's neck. The other girl still struggled, but this seemed to slow and weaken her.

Rachel's vision was blurring, then the kick made her slightly dizzy.

"No…" she only formed the words, her face buried in the snow. One of her contact lenses dislodged.

She couldn't fight any more.

"I thought vampires didn't need to breathe…"

This was the last thing Rachel heard.

**Girl #5 Ferris, Rachel – eliminated**

**21 contestants remaining**

* * *

"What… was… that?!" Darren breathed hard, as he slipped to the floor.

"I hope… oh…" Bradford backed away too.

"No!"

Bradford looked down. Only then he noticed his hand was on the taser's handle.

"Darren, I…"

"No!"

The mace already back in his bag, Darren stood up and rushed towards the stairs. He disappeared before Bradford could say another word.

* * *

"Fuck!" Janice stood in front of one of the bathroom mirrors.

She looked at the shirt with the ripped sleeve and the slight scratch on her skin. No blood was drawn, but still…

Luckily she had a change of clothes. She pulled out another neat, well-creased blouse, and put it on, tossing the old one in the trash can. Then she adjusted her ribbon, and, as a last touch, combed her slightly messy hair.

"All done."


	8. Teaming up

**I am now working, so I will update when I have the time. I will NOT, though, cut this! Comments always appreciated and answered. (Look at the map, it is EXTREMELY important!)**

**(Also, after removing a review, it seemed to me that someone who didn't even bother to read this and just came here to flame told me I'm an evil and offensive person because I'm writing about special education students killing each other. Um, hello? "Special art class" just means an extra art class outside school hours. No one has disabilities here, apart from Lukas, and he's not that severe either.)**

* * *

"Um, Mickey?" Antonio Ruggeri (Boy #7) looked around nervously, the tiny Ruger LCR pocket pistol looking almost ridiculous in his large hand "I'm not sure we should be doing this…"

"They won't get us all killed with these lights…" his best friend Miguel Bereda (Boy #2) fiddled with the lock on the metal doors of the cabinet on the wall, to reach the transformer that provided electricity to the whole building.

The two boys, after finding each other near the lunchroom doors – they managed to whisper a signal during a moment of chaos on the bus – were now standing at the wall opposite to the school disco. Antonio constantly watched either the stairs or the corridor, alert to every sound. His eyes were much keener, though, but his reflexes were legendary; fitting for a basketball star.

"Got it!" Miguel's eyes lit up as he managed to open the doors. There it was, the transformer. Now it was just a matter of exposing some wires and cutting the right ones – and, of course, avoid getting a 220V shock while trying.

Miguel pulled his designate weapon – namely, a pair of pliers – out of his backpack.

"Mickey…" Antonio was really getting nervous "I'm still not sure… you know what you're doing?"

"Trust me, I do."

He was right. Miguel always used to be the better one of the two at handling small, delicate things. Not that Antonio was clumsy – he definitely wasn't a Darren Nelson (Boy #5) – but, at 198 centimetres tall and large hands, he certainly was more of a sportsman than anything else. Leader of the basketball team, the idol of many girls, his handsome Italian features and happy demeanor made him a popular guy. Miguel, on the other hand, was quite average, with dark skin and brown hair, not particularly tall or short. He was more the class clown of the two, though, having a quite unique, sometimes strange and snarky sense of humour. In an odd way, the two quickly bonded already in elementary school – and, by then, there was nobody at Lewis who did not know about the legendary friendship between "Tony and Mickey". For a short while, it was even "Tony, Mickey and Victor"… but that ended the day Filomena Ruggeri flew home, and completely shattered that fateful night at New Year's Eve.

And thinking they even told Victor Wikström (Boy #12) some of their secrets!

* * *

"Whoa! Tony! TONY! TO-NY!" Janelle Wernick (Girl #11) and Denise Midfield (Girl #8), best friends in two separate classes, jumped and cheered, holding Lewis High School's banner, as Antonio once again scored a point, ensuring the victory of their basketball team. Miguel watched them smiling – he liked how these two were enthusiastic about sports, and not only about Antonio, though the way Janelle looked at him sometimes betrayed her feelings. It seemed a little surreal how two girls, who in their spare time talked about fantasy and fairies and were always ready to pose for Elias Wescott (Boy #11), could put even the cheerleaders to shame.

Oh, and the way Antonio playfully kissed their hands… maybe it was just Miguel, but he seemed to spend more time with Janelle too.

"He likes her" said Victor matter-of-factly, crossing his arms.

"But…"

"_Ei_, Miguel. Tony and Jan."

Sure, some time later Antonio also admitted to both Miguel and Victor how he felt about their cute Hispanic classmate.

* * *

And Miguel had such a _cool_ plan for this class trip, he had already managed to convince Elias to add a _frost giant_ to a picture, now it was just a matter to push Antonio out in the snow to pose beside Janelle for a while and…

Plan shattered forever.

"Um… no red wire to cut… which to cut, which one, eh?" Miguel muttered to himself, supposedly trying to ease the situation, but he only succeeded in making Antonio more and more nervous.

Miguel carefully separated the wires with his pliers, as Antonio began turning the pistol around in his hand, trying to keep calm and tell himself Miguel knew what he was doing. After all, he was the one who was always at hand to repair Antonio's bike or somehow undo any damage Darren did, when the two classes were working together.

"Hm… wire, wire… wire… another wire…"

To an outsider, Miguel could have appeared calm and very conscious of what he was doing. In fact, he kept on talking because he totally wasn't. Despite planning to become a technician or repairman, picking at wires inside an unknown transformer was far out of his reach, something that he very well knew could get him killed in a _zap_. Just one false move…

"Wait!" Antonio grasped Miguel's arm.

"Tony, nooo…!" as Miguel was pulled back, he also pulled a long wire with him and…

Nothing happened.

"Sheesh."

Antonio put a finger in front of his mouth, then pointed towards the end of the corridor. Now also Miguel could hear the light footsteps.

Sure, if it was some friendly person or even Victor, then…

"Duck… damn it, run!"

Antonio did not even think of firing, he was not a killer or a violent person by any means, as he pulled Miguel with him… just seconds after an _arrow_ smashed against the box of the transformer.

The two boys ran up the stairs, a second arrow hit the wall after they were gone.

The cabinet was left open, some wire of the transformer pulled out, pieces of them exposed.

* * *

"Fuck you!" Harrison Rowley (Boy #6), strong and muscular, whom it was nearly suicidal to call _Harry_, began to reload his crossbow. While it was not a bad weapon – ranged and lethal – it took too long to aim and load.

He needed a gun. He also knew that running after Tony would have been pointless, as they had seen him and he could not compete with the basketball star's reflexes.

Little did he know that his friend or more likely, companion in bullying, Peter Aarons (Boy #1), had just sneaked out of the lunchroom to see what the noise was all about. And that he was holding a Colt Anaconda revolver in his hand.

_Aim and shoot… oh wait!_

"Harrison!"

The other boy, not yet finished with reloading his crossbow, turned around sharply, but relaxed almost immediately, as Peter was already tucking the revolver back in his belt.

"Pete!"

The two walked up to each other and nodded.

"How come?"

"Just fucking luck" Harrison looked towards the stairs "Tony and Mickey ran, cowards!"

"Let's team up, mate."

"Um… two… easy target… and loud…"

Harrison began pondering. Not about their own safety, but about that lovely Colt Anaconda. Peter had already had his brushes with the law for smoking, drinking and once even marijuana. Harrison engaged in pretty much the same things, but seemed a fine boy outside. Peter was stupid… a good companion and great to spend time with and bully others, but a shallow jackass otherwise.

But not Harrison. He was a strategist…

"Let's see the map… let's split up a little, we see if there are some fucking assholes out there… then, we meet at the window in front of Classroom #2, whaddaya say?"

For Harrison had just the perfect plan. And Peter went along with it, like a good little dumbass should.

Their appointment was in front of Classroom #2 on the ground floor, at the window, at sunrise.

* * *

Lobelia Valdez (Girl #10) stared frozen at Rachel's lifeless body from a first-story window. She had just exited the chemistry room, once she felt somewhat safe, and to what? To see Christina hanging out of a window, bloodied and clearly dead, and Rachel lying down there… black hair…

At first Lobelia had feared it was Jemima Zheng (Girl #12), the lovely Asian girl, but no, she never dressed in all black like the "vampire". But if people were dying so quickly, she _had_ to find her!

Lovely Jem, whom Lobelia had admired since the day she first stepped in art club. Short, thin and with those adorable slanted eyes and shiny black hair. And the way she used to be a pacifier, often shushing even Janice Blackwood (Girl #2), then drying Carmina Blaire's (Girl #3) tears… not to mention how she was happy to make friends with Lobelia too. Lobelia, who always felt thrice-cursed being chubby, tall, not too attractive and even having that ridiculous name. Her parents loved flowers, but instead naming their two daughters, say, Petunia and Daisy, they went for Lobelia and Freesia. "Frissy", as the younger one, then twelve, was always nicknamed…

Lobelia, or Lia, decided to stand out not for her silly name, but for her looks. She loved to wear tight, trendy clothes, most often in purple, pink and black, and dyed her hair to a neon dark purple to match them. Strict teachers would sometimes comment, but others would just nod approvingly, like the art teacher, Miss Henley, who had sometimes disappeared from the bus. _Had she even boarded it?_, Lobelia found herself thinking.

Nevertheless, despite her diet plans clearly not succeeding, her knack for trend and makeup even had prettier girls, like Catherine Hamilton (Girl #6) asking her for advice. Even now, as she was staring down at the yard, her bright red lipstick, dark purple eyeshadow over long fake eyelashes or black eyeliner was not smeared in the least. However, her clothing was totally innapropriate for any kind of physical activity a _Training_ would require, especially her impossibly high platform shoes. She would not take them off, though – not yet, at least. She had her weapon ready, though: an axe. Attempting to run in her platforms would probably caused her to trip and fall right over the blade, but she did not wonder about that possibility at the time.

_Jem, oh, Jem, where are you?_

Jemima, of course, just believed Lobelia to be a friendly girl from an upper class.

_If only you knew!_

Suddenly Lobelia heard footsteps, and quickly retreated to the chemistry room, and peeked from behind the door.

"Oh-oh-oh, but you will _so_ get it, bullies!"

_MINA?!_

Carmina Blaire, her steps erratic and wobbly, walked past the door covered in blood, wielding a tire iron and a spiked fan.

_What the HELL?!_

Lobelia found out with terror that she was starting to shake and tremble violently inside. Carmina was clearly out of her mind… what if Jem was somewhere out there, in need of help?  
But no, her main concern was not Jem; it was _herself_, and maybe later the two of them together. What was this Training turning people into?

Lobelia had to get a hold of herself, to think clearly. For, all out for appearances as she might seem, she was far more level-headed and rational than anyone might ever think.

_All right. I am Jem. Where would I hide? I like lovely clothes, but that is not an option here. I like… reading… and history…_

_Reading. History_

Also, Jemima would likely find a spot somewhere near the entrance.

Lobelia looked at the map, then decided.

* * *

Jemima Zheng, her kitchen knife unsheathed and ready, crouched under the teacher's desk in the ground floor history room, near two wall shelves full of history books.


End file.
